Description

This fine granite jewel climbs through some prime real estate. The route starts as a seam that generally widens as you ascend. The crux comes down low but endurance is still needed on this rope stretcher. Be careful that your pro is placed carefully as this route has spit more than a few climbers and their gear to the ground.

Location

This route can be accessed by going to the right of bev's tower and then cutting up a trail that winds over slick rocks. Do a few short 4th class moves to access a ledge system to access several climbs. The climb begins 30ft to the left of Outer Limits as a seam near a small tree.

When lowering or rapping watch the ends of your rope

Protection

A standard rack of doubles and nuts should suffice although offset nuts or cams can be helpful down low on the route. Anchors are in a small alcove.

Really, an amazing route. You can use the tree to place a bomber gray or purple cam in the left crack to protect the opening moves. That gets you to a tricky stance and some hard to place but solid small nuts. Fire the crux. Pretty straight forward from there but save a couple of small nuts for high on the route.

With a 60 m rope I was able to lower off but my belayer had to climb into the tree a few feet for me to reach the ground.

I recall getting a great little red bd cam (super little) somewhere about the crux. The climb seemed to keep on for me, eased up a little but I guess I grunted so hard at the bottom, I got all out of sorts and couldn't relax. Great climb at the grade!!!

Crack a no-pro? Crack a no-go? Not really. It's a tough climb and the gear is a bit tricky, but it's 11c.. so yeah.

If you're not a purist, you can tree stem pretty high to protect the start with a BD .5 or even a high .4 and come back down. I did not come back down.

Small offset nuts, blue alien, triple and double zero C3s to protect the crux. A green alien can fit in the suspect flake on the right. If you place as much gear as I did without slings, rope drag can be a problem. Didn't look like an issue for the other 4 that hiked it right after me.

Never heard the Crack of no pro remark, even as far back as the late 70s when I first started climbing there. The pro is there even with passive gear, just that much harder to place.

BTW, Livesey and Fawcett originally rated this .10+. Livesey wrote about this climb and others in an old Mountain magazine article titled "Arms Like Flies", a reference to the visiting Brits sometimes skinny physique when compared to some of the burly Americans.

Rad! one of the best at the cliff Gear is a bit tricky and hard to see but bomber and plentiful, stances are tenuous but not too pumpy. I'd recommend 2 sets of small nuts, and a couple tiny cams! Harder if you're not tall